Lynn Vavreck is the Marvin Hoffenberg Professor of American Politics and Public Policy at UCLA, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a contributor to The New York Times.  She is a recipient of the Andrew F. Carnegie Award in the Humanities and Social Sciences and the author or co-author of six books, including The Bitter End: The 2020 Presidential Election & the Challenge to American Democracy.  Her 2016 book, Identity Crisis, was named the “most ominous” book of 2018 by the Washington Post Book Review, and Nate Silver dubbed her 2012 election book the “definitive account” of that election.

She has served on both the American and British National Election Studies advisory boards and is the recipient of multiple grants for her work on survey methodology. From 2019-2021, she helped develop and manage Nationscape, a 500,000-interview election survey. She currently runs the UCLA COVID-19 Health and Politics Project, a collaboration between medical doctors and social scientists at UCLA and Harvard.  At UCLA she teaches courses on campaigns, elections, public opinion, and the 1960s.

Professor Vavreck holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Rochester and held previous appointments at Princeton University, Dartmouth College, and The White House.  A native of Cleveland, Ohio, she remains a loyal Browns fan and is a “known equestrian” – to draw on a phrase from the 2012 presidential campaign.